City says Cleveland Browns negotiation letters are trade secrets

In the weeks since Mayor Justin Bibb made public his $461 million offer to prevent the Browns from moving to Brook Park, the team and City Hall have continued to negotiate behind the scenes.

The two parties exchanged two letters last month. This week, Browns owner Jimmy Haslam met with Bibb at City Hall. It remains to be seen whether the back-and-forth behind closed doors has brought the city and the NFL franchise closer or further away from a deal to renovate the city-owned lakefront stadium.

In late August, the Bibb administration denied a request from Signal Cleveland to release the two letters. The reason given for the denial was that the letters contained trade secrets that are exempt from the Public Documents Act.

“The documents would disclose confidential city business information, business plans and financial information related to these negotiations,” spokeswoman Marie Zickefoose wrote in an email. “Disclosure would damage the city's negotiating position on this and other important projects. The city makes reasonable efforts to protect confidential details to protect the interests of taxpayers.”

Under Ohio law, trade secrets are information that has commercial value because it is unknown and that someone has attempted to keep secret.

The Browns are set to stay on Cleveland's lakefront with a billion-dollar renovation

City Hall has released only one of his letters to the Browns: Bibb's first message to Dee and Jimmy Haslam, encouraging them to stay on the lakeshore.

But the Browns' response to that letter and the city's subsequent response remain trade secrets in the eyes of the administration. Those letters could shed more light on the public's sticking points in Bibb's talks with the Haslams about using taxpayer money for a stadium.

The mayor has offered $367 million for a major renovation of the Browns' current stadium, with another $94 million to cover future repairs. The city would cover those costs over 30 years with admission taxes, county sin tax revenue, reserves and parking fees.

That's less than the Browns have asked for. The team proposed sharing the cost of a $1 billion renovation with the public. Cleveland – and possibly other governments such as the state or county – would have to contribute $500 million toward the renovation costs.

Local governments typically finance expensive expenditures through borrowing, but to pay off $500 million in debt plus interest, the public would have to raise even more than $500 million in cash over 30 years.

More than a month after Bibb made his offer to the Browns, neither side has publicly stated what the status of the negotiations is.

The Browns declined to comment for this article. When Haslam was asked Monday why he was visiting City Hall, he replied shortly before 1 p.m. as he entered Bibb's office, “I'm meeting with the mayor.”

When the meeting ended shortly after 2 p.m., officials left the mayor's office via a route that avoided reporters stationed outside the room.